Jaz and the Brand New Ending

I was so proud of Jaz today-- one of the kids I had previously. She focused really hard on cooperative reading with Deja and Erica today. She’s been sitting with them and she has been succeeding. I don’t know how long this will last, but I feel like she entered into this school year with a more positive attitude after being kept back from last year. On the first day, I put up the quote, “One cannot go back and make a brand new beginning; but one can start from this point and make a brand new ending.” Jaz responded in writing, saying she felt like she was reaping the consequences of skipping class and slacking off last year. She told me the story of her father never being home and how her mother is still in China. I was so sad reading that paper. It's amazing how you can know a kid for a whole year and never hear that stuff. The whole time, you think of her as a class-cutter, and you forget to ask what's going on beneath it all. She resolved, at the end of the written response, to do better this year, to make a "brand new ending" for herself. Perhaps I, too, can resolve to do a better job of helping her this year.

So far, the school year is going well. I can see how much experience helps, now that I'm in my third year at JQUS. I miss those 9th graders whom I had as 7th graders, but I'm also glad to put those first 2 years behind me. I'll write more about my different and interesting roles some other time, one of those roles being a cooking instructor! For now, I'm thankful to be feeling challenged and motivated to improve. For a while I've been wondering if I'm really cut out for this. I'm still not sure, but right now, I feel at least competent and that I am helping these kids more than harming them.